bit of a catch-up

for various reasons, i’ve not been maintaining the daily diary entry – mostly due to being busy…

this week has been all about the perth city to surf, which is happening on sunday (aug 25th). well, obviously the training schedule is all about the fremantle half in october, but you know what i mean!

every training run, every decision point – it’s all been about the 12km c2s on sunday!

i skipped the gym day this week because of it (so the running and rest portions of the schedule aligned fully with the timing of the event).

the schedule actually says “10km race” – but I figure a slower 12km race is a good alternative!

mixed views on how to approach this

initially i was going to simply treat this is a long, slow run day. i did a 10km race recently, on a day when that was not in the schedule. so i figured i could just swap things around.

but curiously, as the event approached, i found it harder and harder to avoid setting a goal of some sort. increasingly difficult to resist the urge to push, even if just a little.

the hills worry me though – having experienced the leg-sapping quality of a hill during the perth marathon, they are probably my biggest running fear / challenge.

i really should find a hill close to me and do more hill work.

i settled on a hybrid approach

whenever i encounter a hill, it will be approached with caution, and taken at a reasonable pace. coming down the other side will be a good chance to recover (to a degree) though going downhill can be as leg-sapping as uphill!

i’m hoping there are relatively flat bits in between – i’m sure there are. for these sections i will aim to hit half marathon pace, or a little faster.

with a slow start (due to sheer volume of runners etc.) and the mixed approach to the course itself, i think i’d be happy with averaging 7:00 per km over the whole distance. which would be 84 minutes.

however i would LOVE to get that down to 75 minutes (an hour and a quarter) – I just don’t think that this is the weekend for that!